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Monday, October 12, 2015

The Procrastinator's Picnic: 3 Things You Really Need

Oh, there are some lovely picnics out there!If you get on pintrest you know what a
magical thing a perfectly planned picnic can be!Would you just look at this woodland set up
on Kha Do's page or basically Janice Johnston’s whole board!Granted, most of these were well planned and positioned for proposals or
photo shoots, but how romantic!

...and this is us! =)

I don’t know about you, but our kids love the idea of a
picnic as well.Truthfully, they were
not deterred at all by basically having picnics every night for a couple months
until our table arrived.And now that it’s
here I’ve been asked countless times if we can go to the neighboring arboretum
for a picnic.I kept putting it off
because I needed to plan and prepare, get a perfect basket and containers, and
figure out a way to haul a tiny vase of flowers into the middle of nowhere with
two younglings and a moose of a dog in tow.It didn’t take me too long to realize that might not be realistic for us
at this stage in our lives!But my brain
is always trying to find a way to make things work, to get creative with the
situation, and I started to whittle down these perfect picnics into something
more practical for us right now.I
started to ask myself what we’d really need.

1.Something edible: chances are, you’re going to
be eating anyway, and, at least for us, lunches are often cold.Sandwiches are great, but we were slightly
pressed for time, so I just started throwing in what we had. This is what I ended up with: a cucumber,
sliced cheese, salami, crackers, guacamole, and an apple.The only prep I did once we got there and that was just to cut the fruit
and veggie with my pocket knife

2.Somewhere to sit: we have an awesome place to
visit down the road, and I’m super grateful for that.But it’s really not necessary.When we first moved down here, we would go
out in our yard or even in our living room. We once even had a snow picnic in Alaska!A blanket to sit on is great but, again, not absolutely necessary.

3.Someone to break bread (or whatever you have)
with: Okay, technically you could have a picnic by yourself, but I feel the fun
thing about picnics is being able to share them (and ideally the outdoors) with others.

Finding Tiny Wonders Together

After a stressful morning of running all around town, this
was such a perfect way to refocus and connect!We looked for nature treasures on the way and tucked them in our
bag.We found a cozy place down by the
river and settled in for our meal.My
little son said, “Mama, look!It’s so
nice to just sit here and look at how pretty the river is going down hill!”Yes!I
love it when he gets it like that!

Views from our hike out

Their highlight was finding these two great dirt hills and sliding (or scooting, rather) all the
way down!

All this to say that it was wonderful, refreshing, and
imperfectly perfect. But we grew together which is much more important than my
tiny vase of flowers! =) I hope this might encourage you to take a picnic with the ones you love and just enjoy it without letting it be a huge inconvenience. Hope you have a great week! Oh, on that note, we may not have internet this week, but I shall return!

About Me

Hi! I am a born-and-raised NW Washintonian, schooled in Oregon, became a nurse and then a mother in Alaska, and have just relocated back to Oregon where we hope to settle and raise our children (and some critters and gardens as well!) I've seen God work through me through his amazing wild world and feel honored to exist in the Creator's beautiful, natural creation. I want to allow my kids to experience this as well and learn from all natures complexities and simplicity. Adventures from the wilds of Alaska to great storybooks await! All photos are mine and copyrighted unless otherwise specified. Hope you enjoy!